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When the Seventh Day Adventist conference bought the 400+ acres from camp Mcquaide in 1949, they did not need all of the buildings on the grounds for school purposes. Many of the buildings were rented out to industries and others were used as ways to make the growing school money. The school, Monterey Bay Academy, needed other sources of income besides the tuition provided by students, so they turned some of the buildings into places that brought income for the school and gave students jobs. |
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There was a dairy farm, farmer fields, a laundry, and other assortments of businesses. The building that AirSpace Integration currently occupies, was first used as a chicken house. They raised hens on the outside of the building and used the inside for processing. The chickens provided eggs, which were sold to local farmers markets, and other chickens were sold to local slaughter houses for meat. |
| This industry gave students the opportunity to get some hands-on work in the real world and gave MBA a side income. But eventually other businesses forced the little chicken operation out of business and MBA leased the property to a much larger company. In 1960 this building became the 19th branch of the Harris Pine Mills Redwood Division, which was owned by the SDA General Conference. This section of Harris Pine Mills turned redwood into beautiful furniture and was one of the largest furniture manufacturers in the US. This company used the rooms in this building for textile manufacturing, sewing production, cutting of massive sections of fabric, and as a warehouse for the furniture waiting to be sold. |  |
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This furniture company occupied all of ASI and the surrounding buildings. Much of the furniture sold in the US was produced right here in our building. In 1987 Harris Pine Mills was purchased by Little Lake Industries. The new management produced almost identical sets of furniture and kept the manufacturing plant here until 1990. These first few companies started to give this building and the surrounding buildings a sense of purpose and gave an industrial life to this campus. |
